Estonia investigates former U.S. citizen's war record for Nazi

TALLINN, Estonia -- Estonian prosecutors said Friday they have launched an investigation into whether an 80-year-old former U.S. resident took part in the massacre of 3,000 Jews during World War II.

Michael Gorshkow, formerly of Panama City, Fla., returned to Estonia in 2002 just before a federal court stripped him of his U.S. citizenship for lying about his war record.

Gorshkow was born Mikhail Gorshkov in Tallinn, Estonia's capital, and emigrated to the United States in 1951 -- receiving U.S. citizenship 12 years later. Because he was born in Estonia, he was automatically entitled to an Estonian passport when he returned.

Authorities don't know if Gorshkow is currently in Estonia, but will try to determine that, according to Kristiina Herodes, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office. Since he hasn't been indicted, he was still free to travel abroad using his Estonian passport, she said.

U.S. officials and Jewish groups accused Gorshkow of helping kill Jews while serving as an interpreter and interrogator for the Gestapo in nearby Belarus.

Nazi troops killed some 500,000 Jews in Belarus, shooting many in open pits and burning others alive. Gorshkow, then 19, allegedly helped murder Jews in the Slutsk ghetto in 1943.

If investigators find enough evidence, Gorshkow could be tried in Estonia for crimes against humanity and receive a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, Herodes said.

Following independence in 1991 after 50 years of Soviet occupation, all three Baltic states, including Latvia and Lithuania, vowed to prosecute any living Nazi war criminals -- although that process has proved difficult, with the few remaining suspects now in their 80s and 90s.

During the 1941-44 Nazi occupation, thousands of Jews were killed in the Baltics, including 200,000 in Lithuania. In Estonia, some 1,000 Estonian Jews were killed. Several thousand Jews from other countries were also sent to Estonia and killed there.